Ex-Wis. Rep. Johnson, longtime TV journalist, dies

[The Straight Story]

Ex-Wis. Rep. Johnson, longtime TV journalist, dies

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Former Wisconsin Rep. Jay Johnson, who spent three decades as a television journalist before jumping into politics and heading the U.S. Mint, has died. He was 66.

Johnson passed away Saturday night of an apparent heart attack at his home in suburban Washington, D.C., family spokeswoman Danielle Bina said Sunday.

"He could just light up a room," said Bina, who shared the anchor desk with Johnson in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Green Bay. "He could work a room like no one I've ever met. ... I would categorize him as having the biggest heart of anyone in the business."

Johnson spent 32 years as a journalist in Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan before running for Congress. The Democrat was elected to Wisconsin's 8th District in 1996, and served on the House transportation and agriculture committees. He lost after one term to Republican Mark Green.

President Bill Clinton nominated Johnson to serve as director of the U.S. Mint in 1999, a position he held from May 2000 to August 2001. The next year he started Jay Johnson Coins and Consulting, where he developed a major wholesale coin sales program for a national bank, according to a biography on his Web site.

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